The Africa Cup of Nations has taken Arsenal midfielder Mohamed Elneny away from the Gunners for the next few weeks.

As the Egyptians made their debut at this year's tournament against Mali on Tuesday, Elneny played the full 90 minutes during the goalless draw.

But lining out for his national team also gave us a chance to evaluate the midfielder in rather different circumstances to what we usually see in the Premier League.

Egypt are lacking the same star power as Arsenal, and so the 24-year-old has more chance to shine and influence the game.

Here's how he got on.

0-15 minutes

The early signs were positive for Elneny, who kicked off Egypt's first real chance of the game after combining with Mohamed Salah from deep. But as the game went on, Elneny seemed unsure of his position - partly because he was forced to cover for wandering right back Ali Gabr.

On 13 minutes, Mali should have taken the lead - and Elneny would have been to blame. As a cross came in from the left hand side, Lassana Coulibaly left Elneny for dead and had a free header right in front of goal.

Luckily for Elneny, Coulibaly could not connect with the ball and Ahmed El-Shenawy was able to prevent the ball from travelling into the Egyptian net, although he injured himself in the process.

16-30 minutes

Around this time, Elneny starts to grow into the game a bit more, and almost puts Egypt ahead with a curling strike from the edge of the box but it travels over the bar. It is clear that he needs to develop a relationship with Salah if Egypt are to have any hope.

The Arsenal man has his best spell of the game as he is active both in attack and defence, shouting instructions to his team-mates.

Elneny begins to establish himself as the link between the back four and the rest of the midfield, sitting in between both lines during Malian attacks.

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31 minutes to half time.

After a solid 10 or 15 minutes in which it looked like he was gearing up to take control of the game, Elneny's concentration drops at a series of set pieces.

First, Salif Coulibaly gets away from Elneny at a corner, although the ball sails over their heads and is cleared. At the following corner, Elneny tries to compensate for being beaten at the last set piece and sprints out well ahead of his attacker.

If you had just tuned in, you'd be forgiven for thinking it was Elneny who was the attacker, and he overruns the play horribly, giving Coulibaly a chance to attack the ball that he is unable to take.

The ball falls to Elneny at the edge of the Mali box after a failed free kick from Salah, but his shot is high, wide and lacks pace.

A few minutes later, Coulibaly once again gets away from Elneny as turns his back on the onrushing Malian. Coulibaly takes advantage of Elneny's casual defending by popping up in the space between the midfielder and the rest of the back four, though he is unable to break the deadlock.

45-60 minutes

After playing a large amount of high risk, low reward passes which put his team-mates under pressure in the first half, Elneny decides to be more conservative in the opening exchanges of the second half.

For the next 15 minutes, Elneny does little. He seems content to take possession in his own half and pass sideways.

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61-75 minutes

An hour into the game, the Egyptians begin to show their frustration at their inability to find a goal. Elneny attempts to become more involved in the attacking play but looks ill-equipped to deal with the Malians' pressing.

Any time he receives the ball past halfway, he is forced into an early pass which in turn puts his team-mates under pressure.

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The verdict

It was a day to forget for Elneny. He failed to make any real impact on the game and committed some errors which a better side would have punished.

The Arsenal midfielder offered little going forward and appeared totally lost any time he had to deal with a high ball.

His failure to deal with an early Mali cross should have led to a goal and did lead to Egypt's goalkeeper going off with an injury. At corners and free kicks, Elneny was uncertain of whether to follow attackers or hand them off to a colleague and from open play he was happy to have attackers running into his blindspots.

Egypt will need a better performance from the 24-year-old if they are to advance any further. If this is the kind of performance he is giving right now, Arsenal will not miss Elneny while he is away.